Blue
by RaeynnBeau
Summary: After the Mark of Mastery exam, Master Yen Sid is keeping Riku busy, traveling to different worlds and embracing the light, teaching him where he can to turn from the darkness. Between that and school, it's hard for him to do much else, so he hasn't really been able to spend much time around Sora - but then, he really hasn't even had time to realize that part ...


**A/N****:** First chapter of a a call and response fic with AzureSpice, named for a Sarah McLachlan song.

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**Do What You Have to Do**

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_"... Created you a monster [...] fate has lead you through it, you do what you have to do."_ ~Sarah McLachlan

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Riku stifled the yawn before it could escape him, forcing his jaw to stay closed and instead breathing through his nose. He could hardly keep his eyes open, if he was being completely honest; but, to be fair he had gotten back to the Destiny Islands at four that morning, and he had to be up at six so he could get to school on time ... Three periods in, however, and he was starting to seriously consider cutting his next class. It was only History; unlikely that they would go over anything Riku couldn't read up on himself ... The problem with that was finding time to do any extra reading ...

Returning to the Destiny Islands after they had gone on their 'grand adventure' had been like a dream - which was funny, because ever since he could remember it had been his dream to _leave_ this tiny world. And yet, for the best part of a year he had spent his time wanting nothing more than to return to it. Return and have things go back to normal. Going to school, hanging out on the kid's Island, seeing his mother ...

Seeing Sora.

That had been a huge motivator for almost everything he had done once he had managed to pull his head out of his ass. Which had been at some point after he had become possessed and he had been closed behind that door in the darkness. He wasn't upset it had happened; actually he thought he had gotten off easy - as far as Riku was concerned, his punishment for what he had done should have been far more severe that fighting for his life, whether he was sorry for or had learned from his actions or not.

Green eyes narrowed slightly as he tried to see what was being written on the board; the sun was really bright, and it was only serving to irritate his eyes. It looked like it was a term they were supposed to know? ... Sighing quietly under his breath, he allowed himself to slouch slightly in his chair, resisting the urge to tug at the collar of his uniform, which felt like it was attempting to strangle him. Normally he would be glad for the help, but since focusing was his priority right now, suicide probably wasn't the best idea.

Putting a hand to his face, he pressed his fingers against his eyes, feeling a headache coming on and wanting to stave it off before it got too bad. It was getting harder and harder to pay attention the less sleep he had, but Riku _insisted_ that he was going to finish his last year of high school, and on time, sole 'Keyblade Master' or not. Not that the title meant anything to _him_, but for some reason that meant that only he was allowed to be errand boy to the worlds. Check this or retrieve that or go sort that out ... It was tedious, sure, but it came with the territory; he could accept that. What he couldn't accept was shirking responsibilities just because some people might have viewed them as less important than the other responsibilities he now had.

Absently, he doodled on his notebook, attempting to will the lunch bell to ring. Fourth period was, as Sora termed it, "food" period this year, and he was almost home free. He just needed to stay upright for a little while longer, which was proving to be easier said than accomplished ...

Aaaaand that was a yawn. Covering his mouth quickly, he closed it and forced himself not to make any sound so that he wouldn't disrupt the rest of class. However, as it was a warm day, the rest of the populace in the room had settled into a comfortable, hazy state that pretty much assured him that even if he did make a sound, he wouldn't be noticed. Not helping his situation was the fact that Riku's seat happened to be right next to the windows, so the gentle breeze that kept coming in through them was slowly attempting to seduce him into falling asleep at his desk, ruffling his hair and whispering sweet nothings about the delicious wonders of dreaming and rest ...

Glancing across the room, he saw that it looked like Sora wasn't faring as well as he was. The brunet looked like he was staring down at the notebook on his desk, but Riku could tell that he had his bright blue eyes closed by the way his head was propped up on his hand. Its perch was precarious, and the pale teen was sure that if the breeze floating past him was but a tiny bit stronger, it would have knocked said head off of that hand ... Which likely would have been an entertaining, verging on hilarious sight, up too but not including the part where Sora most likely would get into trouble by the teacher, who was continuing to drone on and on and on as the minutes ticked by ...

Not that it would matter much - there would never be a _lasting_ consequence for pretty much any mundane thing Sora did. He could charm his way out of any real difficult though without even meaning to; Sora just had that uncanny ability to keep anyone from wanting to be upset with him ... Well, unless they were particularly hateful people, such as the antagonists on the worlds they had visited, but the tended to literally hate everything on principal more often than not so it wasn't like they could truly be counted ...

Shaking his head, Riku glanced up at the clock. Two minutes. Unlike most students anxious to get to their feeding period, he stopped himself from packing up his things preemptively. For some reason he seemed to be the only one that had learned over the past three years that packing up your supplies early was a surefire way to get a teacher that thought you were being disrespectful to keep talking until after the bell and hold the entire class up. Instead, he continued slowly doodling in the margins of the spiral on his desk, scrawling out a crown, a Keyblade, a heartless symbol, random geometric shapes and patterns ... Whatever came across his mind really. Hey, it might not have been paying attention, but it was keeping him awake at the very least, which was an impressive feat.

Maybe he could 'accidentally' fall down the stairs between lunch and fifth period, and claim that he needed to go to the nurse? It was the only place in the school you could really go to get something approaching peace and quiet and lay down at the same time ... Of course the smell wasn't particularly pleasant, but it was better than the only reasonably comfortable alternative, which was hiding out in the mat storage room in the gymnasium and trying to get some shut eye. Surprised he knew this? Yes; Riku had done his research, having thought long and hard about the possibility of skipping classes to catch a few winks as sleep became harder to come by over the months - he knew where there were places you could avoid being seen and get some quiet time to yourself, for sleep or rest or what have you, and he knew how to get to those places ... But, of course, with great power comes great responsibility - he had yet to actually _usurp_ one of these carefully plotted locations for the intended purpose of the plotting ... Though as time went on, it became more and more tempting-

_Kin-koun! Kin-koun! _(1)

And there was the sound of freedom. Despite not having packed up his things beforehand, Riku nearly jumped out of his chair and managed to be the first one out the door anyway. It was an accident to be fair, but he just wanted to get out of that seat before he really _did_ end up nodding off. He didn't need anyone noticing that he hadn't been sleeping much; his mother already questioned his disappearances on a regular basis. Even with the excuse of having a job to earn a little extra spending money (which he had absolutely no want nor need of, after the amount of munny he tended to collect off of enemies dealing with the problems of other worlds), she still gave him a hard time about missing meals and coming in late ... And she didn't even know the half of it. A lot of the time when she thought he was home at night it was just a carefully stacked pillow or two and a well placed illusion ...

Not that he could make illusions; nor did he want to - he had had enough of those from his short stay in Castle Oblivion. No, it was a trinket Yen Sid had given him to put under his pillow to make it look like he was laying in bed asleep. Very handy for the times when he couldn't tell his mother he was leaving late at night and there was something that needed doing off world. However, at the same time it was _not_ very handy because that meant that he could be summoned in the middle of the night if need be. Riku wasn't exactly sure of the time exchange between his world and any of the others, but it always seemed like Yen Sid wanted him out and about for the majority of the evening no matter what...

Stopping at his locker to repack his school bag with his lunch and supplies for the next class after lunch, he kept his eyes trained pretty well down at the ground, trying to avoid looking at the fluorescent lighting that blared so harshly and loudly from the ceiling. He didn't want the small ache in his head to actually blossom into a full on headache, and he _definitely_ didn't want Sora to catch wind that he might have conceivably been, not even hurt, but mildly uncomfortable. He hadn't waited for his friend at the end of class; he had been in too much of a hurry to stand up and get away from that comfortable desk next to that open window with the nice, inviting breeze ...

It wasn't like he was avoiding Sora or anything; he was going to see the boy in a few minutes, as he always did when they had school and it was lunch period. And he didn't really mean to hide the fact that he was tired or in pain from him either; it was just ... The brunet seemed to try and take every chance he could get to cast a healing spell on him, no matter how many times he reiterated that Sora needed to _stop_ casting magic when he was on the Destiny Islands ... If someone saw him throwing around a fireball or something it would only end in horror and disaster, he was sure. They didn't _have_ magic on this world, so at best they blue eyed keybearer'd be taken away to a lab or something and experimented on, and at the worst they would have a full blown witch hunt on their hands, which no one wanted. His best friend was on the Islands far more often than Riku was; he pretty much never left. So, the more difficult the brunet's life was, the more miserable he would be ... On the whole, better to just keep the whole 'strange abilities' thing under wraps, at least until they had graduated from high school and weren't around their peers constantly for 8 or more hours per day ... I mean, until they entered the work force, but that was a whole 'nother conversation, especially since Riku, and as far as he was concerned Sora too, already _had_ jobs. Very important ones. Which entailed regularly saving individual worlds as well as on occasion the entire universe. Wow, he'd never realized how absolutely ridiculous that sounded if you didn't take into account that they actually did travel across worlds and save people. Like two teenagers playing superhero or something ...

Shaking his head and sighing, the pale teenager rubbed at his eyes again as he made his way down the hallway, winding around students that stood like obstacles in his path and thankful that honestly he didn't have very many friends. That was fine by him, especially in this instance; it meant he wouldn't have to make idle chatter with anyone on the way to the place where he and Sora normally met for lunch period, and he was mostly ignored.

Sneaking up onto the roof was a simple task when you were a Keyblade wielder; along with the title came the perk that you had the ability to open or close any lock at will. All it took was a glance in one direction and then the other to make sure that no one saw you open the door that was supposed to be barred from student access, stop a second to think about it, and voila - the lock clicked open and you had instant access. Which is precisely what Riku did, opening the door and letting himself through it before another quick click from behind him told him the door had re-locked itself, and he started up the stairs to the fenced in area where he and Sora normally ate together.

Upon returning to the islands, they had discovered this new rendition of their 'Secret Spot' ... And interestingly, Sora didn't seem to feel the need to let Kairi in on this one. That might be because she didn't have her own Keyblade, and so it would be a little difficult for her to get up there unless she was being escorted by one of them, which could be a pain he supposed ... Honestly, the Twilight Walker didn't know why they were keeping their rooftop getaway just between the two of them, and he wasn't going to question it either. He really couldn't care less; what he did care about was that he ate lunch alone with Sora every school day, except on those rare occasions when something Yen Sid wanted done that couldn't wait until after classes let out, so he had to leave early. Those days were particularly irritating because he had to come up with an excuse to leave, usually on the double, and then get away from the building as quickly as possible so he could leave world where there was a far lower probability of being seen ...

Squinting at the bright light that nearly blinded him for a few moments as he opened the door that lead onto the flat roof, he glanced around to see if the brunet had made it up there before him or not. It didn't seem like it as the place was pretty vacant as far as he could tell, which meant that he was the one that got to pick where they sat that afternoon. And he was definitely voting for the shade - not that there was much, being on the roof and all, but the outcropping that housed the door that lead to the roof was just big enough to cast a shadow, since it was slightly before noon and the sun wasn't directly overhead. And that was precisely where the Twilight Walker was intending to park himself. Heading over to the slightly darkened space, Riku sat down and pulled his lunchbox out of his bag. His mother had put it together for him, as she did every day ... Though he also had an addendum or five, as could be witnessed by his continual pulling of food items out of his bag following the removal of his bento. (2)

This was another reason why they tried to eat up on the roof with each other as often as possible; the sheer quantity of food they consumed now probably would shock most people. Riku's current portion, once he had removed all of the extras from his bag, looked like enough to easily feed two or three people, but to be fair you would probably be surprised by the sheer amount of calories it took for Riku to keep his body running, sleep deprivation or not - Sora too. With the level their stats were at, they had discovered pretty quickly upon their return to the islands that they could easily eat for two. Sora even more so, but then, the brunet always did have a huge appetite, and a strong stomach to match. The pale teenager was reasonably certain that, even before their world-hopping shenanigans, Sora probably could've downed motor oil and been ok ...

He laughed a little at the thought as he looked at the food strewn around him in the shade and sighed; honestly, more than eating, he just wanted _sleep_ ... And the amount of sunlight beaming down on the roof wasn't helping matters; Riku nearly had his eyes closed he was squinting so much, and at this point he was veritably praying that he didn't develop a migraine. Since returning to the Islands he didn't get sunburned as easily as he had when he was younger, which was a mercy to be sure, and not a small one ... But he still had a vague aversion to daylight, especially of the direct variety - it was only vague though. He ignored it more often than not, especially if it was going to hinder something like going to the kid's island or something ... It was a weakness he seldom indulged, and normally just muscled through.

More than anything right now though, he dreaded feeling the call from Yen Sid. The summons was like a small flag standing up in the back of his head when the old wizard wanted him, and it made his stomach churn slightly in dread whenever he thought maybe he felt the beginnings of that feeling coming on. It had only been a few months since he had passed the Mark of Mastery exam, but he'd already learned an inherent aversion to being summoned. At first it was alright and he hadn't minded, but as time went on and the call came more frequently with less breaks in between it had started to get really old really fast ...

The Twilight Walker never complained about it though; he knew how important it was that he do as he was told, and help where he could ... He did what he had to do to keep everyone happy. Call it penance, call it obedience, call it whatever you wanted - honestly, it was probably true. But, after what he had done, it was of Riku's opinion that he deserved to do all of this and more, no matter how tired he was or how much he didn't want to. He owed the worlds that much, for nearly causing all of them to fall into darkness ...

The door to the stairs opened outwards, and Riku inclined his head toward it almost absently, not saying anything until he knew that it was Sora and just Sora ... True, the brunet still had yet to tell anyone else about this place but well ...

That had changed once before when they were very young and had a different 'Secret Spot' ... And Riku had never been able to really forget it so ... on some level ... He was afraid that it would happen again.

He didn't realize that, like every other time he came to the roof or he heard the door open when he was already there, he was holding his breath ...

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**The End ...?**

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Footnotes:

1 - the sound a school bell makes in Japanese manga.

2 - a bento is a Japanese lunch box


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